5 April 2004
Something & I
There's a rather wonderful anniversary this week. I wonder if you have noticed it. In France - where I am working for the next fortnight - it's big news.
But before I get on to that, I've been working with a group of people on making stories out of the images in the stained-glass windows of Chartres cathedral. They are surprisingly everyday – stonemasons, carpenters, shoppers, butchers, money changers and so on.
The images seem to encourage you to write fables - fairy stories almost. Is it because they are simplified representations of people and places?
Anyway, the anniversary I started with is the centenary of the entente cordiale between France and England. The two countries had been at war, on and off, for about 1000 years. Some of these skirmishes had lasting effects - the Norman invasion of 1066 is a good example. Many subsequent conflicts had, at their root, the English possessions in the Pas de Calais or Aquitaine ...
So how come, after so many years of conflict, peace suddenly dawned on the ruling classes - that's the English Royal Family and the French Republican leaders.
Remarkably, it was the accession of Edward VII.
Queen Victoria was an isolationist in her imperial foreign policy, but her heart belonged to Germany. Her son was far more taken with France. If you know anything of Edward Prince of Wales' character, you can debate why that might have been.
I was musing on this question - and the huge applauding crowds that will turn out to welcome Queen Elizabeth II in France this week - when I began to wonder if Prince Charles on his accession will inspire anything like as momentous a change. Ecology perhaps ...
And the expression 'my husband and I' popped into my head. You see, Greg and I work together – most recently on a set of science fiction stories for the Department of Trade and Industry. Mentioning it, I couldn't see how to refer to us without using the dread phrase …
Oh well, it's done now.
Take the plunge into the Labyrinth.
